Fernand Khnopff (b. 1858 Termonde, Belgium, d....

160

Fernand Khnopff (b. 1858 Termonde, Belgium, d. 1921 Brussels, Belgium)

Jeanne Kéfer

1885

Oil on canvas

___

Fernand Khnopff depicted the daughter of a composer friend on a porch before a closed door, with her tiny thumb catching the edge of her bow as she reaches into her coat. With this small gesture, Khnopff captured the child’s vulnerability and uncertainty in facing the outside world. To further evoke a child’s perception of a world scaled for grown-ups, he framed Jeanne Kéfer’s tiny body against the adult-sized door and tilted the floor ever so slightly.
Jeanne is further isolated by the free, abstract brushwork in the reflective door window behind her. Typical for Khnopff, Jeanne is not warm and inviting but cut off in the shallow background, a fixed haunting gaze on her face.

Getty Museum

We Love Paintings

160

160 notes